Tag Archives: App Review

If you’re an avid online shopper, whether that be through retail sites, Amazon, eBay, etc., the Jet.com app is going to be right up your alley. Jet is a shopping site geared to the deal-hungry consumer looking to purchase anything from home supplies to laptops, gardening tools to lawn mowers. What’s the difference? Jet, and the Jet app, find the lowest price on goods from around the web and offers instant savings on each of your purchases just for being a member. More than just that, Jet gives you more saving options during check out, such as the ability to waive your right return an item, or choosing a certain payment option such as a debit card vs. a credit card.

Here’s how it works:

Beautiful Design

Outside of the incredible savings, the Jet.com app has one of the greatest UI experiences I’ve seen in a shopping app, maybe even any app. The material design is done perfectly and Jet’s bright brand colors offer a relaxed a positive feeling when spending your money (gotta love consumer psychology). As I mentioned in week 3’s app review of Food.com, I love when an app truly feels like an extension of your device, as opposed to a completely separate ecosystem. With the Jet.com app, I can quickly jump in and find an item I’m shopping for without feeling the jolt my brain reorienting itself for a new experience.

The apps material efforts extend beyond hamburger menus and flat colors. For instance, while searching for an item inside of a category, a floating action button, which has an amazing animation, allows you to filter (by way of category, brands, color, etc.) or sort (Relevance, prices low to high, member savings, etc.) your results. The app’s shopping cart is not without pleasing aesthetics either. Entering the cart, you can quickly remove items by swiping left, exposing the brands purple color and a vector trash can icon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Incredible Savings

So back to the savings which is most important in a shopping app. For the little bit of time that I’ve spent with the Jet.com app, I am very pleased with the savings that I’ve seen. The concept of scouring the web for the lowest price and then adding member savings and additional options for savings is brilliant in my opinion. As a test, I found a particular bag of dog food on the Jet.com app and compared the price to Amazon.com (the app does this for you, but I checked on my own as well). According to the Jet app, the prices matched exactly, however, when researching myself the Amazon price was actually a couple dollars less. BUT, I then realized that Amazon was going to charge me $22 in shipping for 30 pound bag of dog food, and Jet would charge me $0.

What’s the Catch?

When you first download the app and start to realize the savings potential, it’s incredible. What they don’t tell you up front is that all these great deals are part of a 3-month trial period that starts at your first purchase. After your 3 months, you’ll have a to pay an annual fee of $50 to keeping getting the deals. Not so sure about it now? Well, remember, Amazon charges $100/year for their Prime service to get free shipping and exclusive offers. Another perk to Jet.com? There is no sneaky auto-renew feature when your trial ends. And for that, we thank you.

So, all-in-all I’m a huge fan of Jet.com’s app. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great deal and a pleasurable shopping experience.

What do you think of Jet’s shopping app? Let me know in the comments below or connect on Twitter – @HOOKD.in! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to be the first to receive next week’s app review!

In last week’s app review, I mentioned how smartphones have primarily become time wasters killers. Many of the spare seconds we have are spent scrolling through Facebook, browsing Twitter, and of course, playing games. I personally am a gamer at heart, so to no surprise, most of my smartphone time killing comes in the form of games. Well, I’ve found a new game that has proven to be quite good at helping me kill time, and also happens to be pretty awesome – True Skate.

Now that smartphones have been around for a while, and the technology is starting to plateau, it’s interesting to see how people are using them. In my observation (no research to back this up,) smartphones have really become a distraction, time killing, entertainment device, occasionally used for communication. Think about it. When smartphones first came onto the scene, it was all about productivity paired with connectivity. Now, we’re primarily using our phones to browse through Twitter, scroll through Facebook, get sucked into a Reddit rabbit hole, play games, etc. This is something I haven’t paid attention to until I downloaded the Food.com app for Android and realized, “Hey, this magic device along with this app can actually make my life easier.”

Hey, thanks for stopping by! HOOKD.in is a site dedicated to technology and advertising, where you can find articles including news, reviews and how-tos. If you like staying informed about recent product releases, tech conferences, software and apps, as well as brands of all sizes and their marketing campaigns, stick around – you’re sure to find something here you’re in to!

It appears I’ve been blinded by ignorance when it comes to web browsers for my Android phone. Somehow last week, can’t really remember how, I stumbled upon an app called Opera. Upon first glance, I almost scrolled right past it thinking the “O” stood for Oprah, or that the non-stylized red character represented the Overstock shopping app – that’s just the vibe I got from the icon. But, as it turns out, this is actually a popular (50 million downloads popular) alternate browser that I’ve come to realize may likely become my new daily driver. Here’s why.

I’m going to be honest. Since using Android devices, I haven’t come across a single OEM SMS app that I’ve actually enjoyed. A pure generalization from my personal experience is that they are bloated, slow and just plain unattractive. As a matter of fact, I am currently trying to use the LG G3 messaging app and I can’t manage to get the keyboard to display for me to compose a message.

The good news is, as Android users, we have plenty of messaging app options out there. My favorite by far has been Google Hangouts. Hangouts works especially well for me because my full-time job uses Gmail as our primary email client, and Google Chat as a primary means of inter-office communication, so messages from co-workers filter through the same app as my SMS.

Recently I came across the lesser popular Google Messenger App, and with its recent updates, I decided to give it a try and compare it to Hangouts. I’ve been using Messenger as my daily driver on my LG G3 for about a week now, and here are the unique features, similarities and downfalls I’ve come across.

So, you thought the social photo sharing app jar was full, huh? Think again. Kanvas is a new addition to the evolving list of social media apps with a focus on sharing photos. What sets it apart? Well there are a few features that make this app a little different from others, and provide users something to get excited about.

Like this:

One great thing about Android (and now Apple is coming around) is the ability to change the keyboard that you use across your entire device. It’s fun to try out different keyboards, and they can make your phone feel a little more customized and personal. There are tons of options. You’ve got everything from the simplistic but effective Google keyboard, to the crowd favorite SwiftKey keyboard, and even heavily modified versions such as this Paris themed keyboard.

Personally, I like to keep things simple which is why I’ve been using Google Keyboard.. until now that is. Minuum (yes, that’s spelled correctly) keyboard from Whirlscape has re-imagined the way the mobile keyboard should work. Instead of jamming the traditional keyboard layout into a phone, consuming precious screen real estate, Minuum significantly compresses the keyboard to an almost impossible size. It’s ok to say that it’s a nearly impossible size, in fact, Whirlscape admits it themselves. What makes it okay is the fact that this has to be the smartest keyboard I have used. Take a look at the video below.

Like this:

Do you ever wish you could do more with your phone’s lock screen? With Locket, a lock screen news feed app for Android, you can now get a little more functionality out of it. Locket is a lock screen app that allows you to find news articles of your interest as soon as you light up the screen of your device.

Upon installing the app, you are prompted with the ability to select your particular interests. If you’ve used Flipboard, this is a very familiar process. You can choose from 13 broad categories, and after that, you’re all set. The next time the screen is turned on, you’ll be greeted with a full screen cover photo of a story that fits into one of the categories that you’ve selected. One thing that I’ve noticed is that there can be some lag between the time you hit the button to power on the screen and when the app actually kicks in.

Like this:

Keeping track of to-dos and remaining productive in personal and professional life can be a chore. Trying to remember things, making lists, setting reminders… it can quickly become overwhelming. Luckily in this beautiful age of efficiency, their are seemingly countless numbers of web, desktop and mobile apps designed to help you get stuff done. One of these apps has been increasingly growing in popularity – Wunderlist. I’ve spent some quality time with the latest iteration of the software, so keep reading after the break for my in-depth review.